Top 5: Michael Bay Action Scenes

About five years ago, Michael Bay was film critics' go to example of trashy American movie-making. And it's easy to see why. He makes overlong CGI heavy action films that are thinly plotted, hard to comprehend action-wise, and has an unfortunate habit of objectifying his female characters. But there's a simple reason why Bay still gets work: his films make money. So in honor of the latest Transformers shenanigans Transformers: The Last Knight, I'm picking five of the best action scene from the controversial director.

#5 Optimus Wrecks Face from Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen

While the film was notoriously hampered script-wise, thanks in part to the Writer's Guild Strike and humor that is blatantly offensive, seeing Optimus Prime take on multiple Decepticons with ease is a whole lot of fun. Using his burning blades, Prime tries to keep Sam safe as he does battle in a nearby forrest and seems to be unstoppable...until gut punching sneak-attack seemingly kills him. It's great rise and fall within a single scene and more effective than any other moment in the movie.

#4 Annex Defense from 13 Hours

While many have argued that this film is a Call of Duty game brought to life, this sequence effectively demonstrates the efficiency of American fighting men. After a quiet entry into an American embassy the Global Response Staff, a group of private military contractors, are beset on all sides by hordes of enemies. What follows is a prolonged and furious firefight that shows all of their tactical and physical know how featuring well-placed explosives, heavy firepower, and stellar marksmanship. Though both films are flawed, this segment does a better job at showing how well soldiers can fight than Lone Survivor did.

#3 Sky-Dive from Transformers: Dark of the Moon

The Transformers series never knows what roles humans should play. Are they useful allies? People that need saving? Well none of that matters in this scene because this time around they're just being awesome. Trying to infiltrate a heavily guarded city, the U.S. military teams board helicarriers and then proceed to wingsuit sky dive into the city. It's a fun sequence that's made all the more impactful and impressive by actual stunt work.

#2 Rescuing Syd from Bad Boys II

If there's any reason that Edgar Wright loves this movie so much, how else do you explain Hot Fuzz's obsession with it, it has to be the film's final action sequence. While Mike (Will Smith) and Marcus (Martin Lawrence) have successfully pulled off their bust, Marcus' sister and Mike's flame Syd (Gabrielle Union) has been kidnapped by a drug lord with the local army at his disposal. Not content to give the dealer what he wants, Mike and Marcus and their team stage an assault on the kingpin's heavily guarded home in a flurry of explosions and gunfire that leads to an SUV chase, followed by a crash into Guantanamo Bay, and a stand off involving dive rolls landmines and one of the biggest baddies overkills in movie history.

#1 The Final 20 Minutes from The Rock

While there's not a signature set-piece to the speak of, the home stretch of The Rock is old-school action film-making at its finest. After a tense stand-off between the rogue military personnel, John Mason (Sean Connery) and Dr. Stanley Goodspeed (Nicolas Cage) work in tandem to prevent the death of innocent civilians in the Bay Area and Alcatraz. With Mason using his MI6 training and ingenuity to take on younger foes and keep Goodspeed safe, Stanley rushes to disable the warheads, despite being in combat, plunging adrenaline into his heart, and then setting off smoke signals, while yelling, to give the all clear before an unintentional explosion fires him into the bay.